We talk about a top 10 shojo manga list in this episode, and we’d only read about one and a half of them. We really need to read more shojo stuff. That’s why I’m glad Viz has been having a lot of digital shojo manga sales recently. I picked up the entirety of Ceres and From Far Away recently, and they’ve got Basara for sale right now. These sales are great if you want to get into older and out of print titles like those especially. You have to budget yourself just right if you want to get full series though. I’d love to pick up Basara, but I already blew my budget this month on Ceres and From Far Away. There’s always next time, I suppose. My point is that if you really want to get into more shojo manga, trying out at least the first volume of one of the series Viz has been putting on sale every week would be a good place to start. That, or refer to the list we talk about in this episode and select a title from there. There’s really a lot of variety in shojo titles that may surprise you.

Last saturday was a real turning point in manga history, though. After four decades of continuous serialization, Kochikame finally ended it’s run. A kudos to Akimoto-sensei for keeping a long running series going for four decades, a feat only a few other titles have done. But it’s strange to live in a post-Kochikame world. Perhaps stranger if you live in Japan. After all, Kochikame was a part of the lineup for so long, it became something you took for granted. It was something you’d expect to see every week in Weekly Shonen Jump. A comforting reminder of how as much as things chance, some things stay the same. Still, all things must come to an end, and Kochikame ended on Akimoto’s own terms, and during a resurgence of popularity. That’s a fine way to go out. Akimoto is still kicking, though, and not done with manga yet. I really hope to see both Kochikame and his future works make their way to the west sometime in the future.

Kochikame is about half of what we talk about this week, but there’s plenty else we go over. This week your titular mavericks, Colton and Sid, discuss the recent two NYT Best Selling Manga Lists, debate all three of the latest Jump Starts, run down a Top 10 Shoujo Manga to recommend to men list, and unveil our exciting plans for the next episode? What could that be? Listening to the podcast will reveal all!

Enjoy the show, and follow us on twitter at @sniperking323 and @lumranmayasha. If there’s something you want to ask that’s too big to tweet, drop us a line in the comments below, or e-mail us at mangamavericks@gmail.com! Thanks for listening!

Siddharth Gupta is an animation student at the School of Visual Arts. Currently residing in NYC, the icy cold, snow-covered neighborhoods of Minnesota will always be his home. An avid animation and comics fan since childhood, he has turned his passion towards being both a creator and a critic. He credits his love for both mediums to Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball, which has also defined his artistic and comedic sensibilities. A frequent visitor to his local comic book shop, he is an avid reader and collector, and is particularly fond of manga. His favorite comics include Urusei Yatsura by Rumiko Takahashi, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, The Adventures of Tintin by Herge, Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed, and pretty much anything and everything Deadpool.